A known vehicle door closing apparatus is disclosed in JP-A-5-59856. This door closing apparatus includes a striker, a latch mechanism and a closer mechanism. The striker is installed on the vehicle body and the latch mechanism is installed on the side of the vehicle door for holding the vehicle door in a half closed state and a completely closed state by engaging the striker. The closing mechanism is coupled to the latch mechanism for bringing the vehicle door in the half closed state into the completely closed state through operation of the latch mechanism.
The closing mechanism includes a pivotable active lever, a passive lever and a cancel lever. The active lever is connected to a drive source. The passive lever is engaged with the active lever and is capable of being engaged with the latch mechanism. The cancel lever is connected to an operation source capable of effecting engagement and disengagement between the passive lever and the active lever.
In addition, the passive lever is formed with an opening in a deformed shape having a first opening and a second opening. A slide pin inserted into the opening in the passive lever is supported by the cancel lever and the active lever via a tong hole. The slide pin slides along the long hole of the active lever by operating to pivot the cancel lever to thereby move between the first opening and the second opening of the passive lever, by which the active lever is engaged with and disengaged from the passive lever.
However, according to this known apparatus, the active lever is engaged with and disengaged from the passive lever by the slide pin. When the active lever and the passive lever are pivoted, that is in the closing operation, the slide pin moves in a diametrical direction along the long hole of the cancel lever along with the passive lever and the active lever. Accordingly, when the cancel lever is operated to pivot in the closing operation, depending on the operational timing thereof, the distance from the pivoting center of the cancel lever to the slide pin, that is a lever ratio of the cancel lever, is changed. As a result, the operation of the cancel lever can be heavy or difficult.
In light of the foregoing, a need exists for a vehicle door closing apparatus that is not as susceptible to the foregoing disadvantages and drawbacks.
It would be desirable to provide a vehicle door closing apparatus having an improved operational performance.
It would also be desirable to provide a vehicle door closing apparatus in which the operation of the cancel lever does not become heavy or difficult during operation.
Also, it would be desirable to provide a vehicle door closing apparatus in which the restriction of the relative pivoting of the passive lever can be carried out with a small force.
It would be further desirable to provide a vehicle door closing apparatus in which twisting of the cancel lever during the opening operation does not occur so that excellent operational performance can be achieved in the opening operation.
It would be further desirable to provide a vehicle door closing apparatus in which the space occupied by the closing mechanism at the inside of the vehicle door is reduced so that the space for moving the sliding glass up and down can be provided without the need for enlarging the thickness of the vehicle door.